It Is About Who and Whose We Are! Titus 1 Part 2

As kind as Paul was to his young preachers; he had no patience for the hypercritical, the vain and hedonistic church goers. Those were the folks that that caused dissension in the church. They were the ones that drew the weak away. It absolutely infuriated Paul to see people whom God had given his greatest gift–try to marginalize it with works and traditions.

In addition, it made him angry to see people given a new life in Christ live with no regard or respect for that new life they claimed to have attained. While the gift of salvation is just that–a gift, when Christ comes in; one becomes a new creation and leave the old selfish and self-centered person behind. If there is no heart change, then Paul saw that the people were not taking serious the gift of salvation.

It is the same today. So many people claim to have believed the message of salvation. Yet, many either continue to attempt to justify their lives with the works they have completed, rather than accept the new life in Christ–To God, that is maddening. We are free from our old life and that need to somehow earn redemption for our sinful lives.

Conversely, the other extreme–that likens salvation to a get out of hell free card–that requires no change in your life is an equally flawed paradigm. We are “new creations”; part of an amazing family–headed by a loving God that created us, and wants nothing more than to see us live free and with peace and joy. It is not about what we do–it is about who and whose we are. We need to live lives that honor our God and our community of believers!!!!

God Bless You

For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group.11 They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.12 One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”[c]13 This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth.15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.